


Bridge Invasion

by cappucinohanzo



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 16:30:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12461580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cappucinohanzo/pseuds/cappucinohanzo
Summary: Jesse's not entirely sure how to approach this man whose face and story he knows all too well, but whose character still seems a mystery.





	Bridge Invasion

**Author's Note:**

> Another Tumblr non-prompt.

* * *

 

The archer sits on the edge of the bridge, feet hanging above the calmly flowing stream. Against the background of chaos behind them, the garden seems almost too peaceful, as if it existed in a different universe altogether, and underneath the dark surface of the water, Jesse McCree can see koi swimming lazily now that the explosions are no longer rocking the river’s base. He looks at them as his feet stop taking him forwards - the hesitation turns quite physical the closer he gets, a reaction he’s hardly ever had to anyone before. He glances at the man, eyes lingering over the sleeve covering his injured arm that hangs heavy and wet with blood before he lets himself look at his face. There’s a clear resemblance there - to Genji, that is - but the two brothers couldn’t be further from each other.

Still, curiosity and cats; slowly, Jesse pushes himself onwards.

“Heya,” he says, watching Hanzo’s closed lids open just enough for him to peer towards the intruder now entering his bridge, “Sorry for letting that happen. D’ya, I don’t know, want some help patching it all up? I know what a pain it is trying to get it done on your own; trust me, I’ve been there.”

The archer closes his eyes again. For a long time, he remains quiet, leaving Jesse standing there like an idiot, unsure if he’s welcome to sit down or not. Finally, though, Hanzo nods and Jesse sits down within a polite distance from him, letting his bag drop down from his shoulders to fill up the space left there.

“It was not your fault,” Hanzo says.  
He looks up now, eyes following the stream to the pond surrounded by low-hanging trees, and Jesse knows he traces the reflection of the burning temple with his eyes before turning his gaze back to his bleeding arm. He doesn’t speak before he’s shaken the sleeve down his shoulder, revealing the deep cut slashing apart the scene etched into his skin. It’s damn near down to the bone; no wonder he couldn’t lift his bow afterwards.

“Well, damn,” Jesse mutters, drawing open the strings tying up his bag’s mouth, “That’ll need something a bit more potent than what I’ve got here, but you’ve gotta wait ‘til we get back to the base. Ziegler will patch you up no problem. Until then… I’ll do what I can.”

Hanzo nods. As Jesse digs out the tapes, the bandages and everything else that could possibly keep the man’s blood inside his body for the next forty minutes, he seems to allow himself to watch him, head still facing forwards but keen, sharp dark eyes constantly over the American’s shape.

“Why did you apologise?” he asks then, turning his eyes away as if he’d never looked.

Jesse lifts his gaze, stripping a long piece of medical tape from the roll in his hands.

“I shoulda been covering for you,” he says, “That was my job. Keep the sidelines clear so you can do your job. Then I missed one and here we are.”

“You had no line of sight to the enemy that reached me. What could you have done?”

“Shot him?”

“Through a wall?” Hanzo asks, squinting at him before once more turning away, “You did what you were told, as did I, but sometimes the circumstances do not favour us.”

He barely flinches when Jesse wipes the sticky, warm blood off his arm and rushes to close the cut with the tape. Racing against time as the first layer gives in to the flow of fresh blood, he adds another, then a third, until the edges reach dry skin and finally hold the wound together.

“Where is my brother?” Hanzo asks, and Jesse’s not surprised.  
Genji’s the only reason he’s here - officially, he’s not even associated with the organization.

“Genji’s fine, he’s out there finishing off the loose ends with the others.”

“Then why are you here?”

Jesse chuckles as he undoes a roll of bandage in his hands, then wraps a round of it around the taped-down cut.

“Because,” he says casually, “Just because. They don’t need the full force out there putting zip-ties on these lowlifes.”

“Does he know?”

“Know what? About you almost getting your entire arm hacked off? Nah, don’t think so - you’d think he’d be here now if he knew.”

“Good.”  
Hanzo draws in a sharp breath, holds it in and shudders; Jesse watches him with some interest, then resumes bandaging his arm again.

“How’s that coming along, anyway, between you two?”

The archer swallows, his eyes now following a koi kissing at the water’s surface.

“It would be hard to tell.”

“How so? To me, it looks like you’re steadily gettin’ somewhere.”

That gains him Hanzo’s attention; the other man watches him closely for a moment, eyes squinting, until he finally drops his gaze to his exposed arm and the dry white bandages now covering most of it from shoulder to just below his elbow. He sighs, but says nothing in the end.

“Hey, look. I know that thing’s difficult for you, but if I can offer an outsider’s perspective, I’m pretty sure you’ve got it. See, I’ve known your brother for a long time - we kept in touch after he left Blackwatch, after the whole fiasco with the organization, and at times it wasn’t that active but I always got to follow him through the things he went through from the sidelines, and, you know, I heard quite a bit about you along those years. It’s amazing how far he came from the man that first sat down at our table twelve years ago. He was angry and introverted and always ready to go off at the smallest things, you know - I think that’s about the extent that I can talk to you about it, as it really ain’t my story to tell. But the more he started talking about you, the relationship that you two had, the more all that started to, say, _untangle_ ; the way he looks at you today, I know that he’s put all that anger behind him. All he wants is to have his brother back. To connect with you. And, excuse me if I overstep here, but I think that’s what you want, too. So, that outsider’s perspective? Just go for it. I promise it’ll be good for you both.”

Hanzo stays still as Jesse tapes down the end of the bandage. Then, absently, he runs his fingertips lightly over the wound as if to make sure it’s still there; his palm settles right underneath it even as his brows crease, and Jesse watches him, realising that talking to him really isn’t that hard after all.

“For a stranger,” Hanzo tells him, “Your eagerness to reach out to a man you barely know with kindness, kindness that you are quite aware he does not deserve… is extraordinary.”

“You’re here to help us, right?” Jesse chuckles, finally letting his legs dangle down from the bridge’s edge like Hanzo’s, “I’m just tryin’ to make friends with the people I’m gonna be relying on out there on the field. Besides, like I said - I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s good to meet the man behind the legend.”

He’s glad to see his words prompt a smile, as crooked and weary as it is, from the other man.

“You have my thanks,” the archer says, “It has been long since I last had a pleasant exchange like this.”

“When you need another, just come to me. Always happy to please. But you sound like you’d just wanna be quiet now, or am I reading you wrong?”

“No.”

“Then quiet is what you’ll get. What about solitude? Would you like me to pack up and go, maybe find Genji and tell him -”

“No, you can stay.”

Jesse smiles, relaxing on the warm wood. The smell of smoke pierces his nostrils when the wind turns, and he looks at the burning building ahead, wondering if there’ll be anything left of it once the fire is contained. Not that it matters much - these things tend to be taken down and rebuilt over and over anyway, for some damn reason.

“I’m glad to have met you, Genji’s brother. You’re one hell of a shot, if I may add.”

Hanzo breathes out - it has the tone of a tired chuckle that never really manages to manifest all the way through. He glances at Jesse, nods, and then resumes staring at the fish.

“You were not bad yourself,” he says, and after that, neither of them speaks.


End file.
